722.2315/1118
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Ambassador of Peru called to see me this morning and communicated to me the following confidential message which he had been instructed to give me by his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Concha. Dr. Concha said he had great gratification in letting me know that his Foreign Office Advisory Council had at length come around to a reasonable point of view; that they now supported unanimously the position which he had taken and that the Peruvian Government was prepared to accept the suggestions I had proffered as a basis for the definitive settlement of the boundary dispute with Ecuador. The Ambassador added that Dr. Garcia had been instructed to return to Washington and that immediately after the latter’s return, the Peruvian delegation would be prepared to negotiate with the delegation of Ecuador on the basis of these suggestions.
I asked the Ambassador to let Dr. Concha know of my very deep appreciation of his message and of my great gratification that the way now seemed to be prepared for a friendly solution, through arbitration, of the long-standing dispute. The Ambassador asked [Page 225] if I had any reason to believe that the Ecuadorans would now withdraw from the position they had previously announced. I repeated what I had said in an earlier conversation, namely, that I had been definitely advised both by the Chairman of the Ecuadoran delegation and by the Ambassador of Ecuador that the suggestions I had made were one hundred percent acceptable to the Government of Ecuador. Beyond that I said I could, of course, not go, but I stated that I would talk with Dr. Viteri as soon as possible and let him know of the attitude of the Government of Peru. The Ambassador said he hoped I would do so and expressed the earnest desire that a final adjudication of the dispute was now near at hand.